Upon Further Review: Saints vs Raiders

Just when you think you know all the answers, they go and change the questions.

The questions we are asking now are very different from those we were asking earlier this week. Now we're asking questions like, "How many can we win in a row," "How is anybody going to stop us once we're healthy," and "Can we get to the bye at 5-3?" What a difference a few days make.

Speaking of questions and answers, the Saints pretty much had answers for everything on Sunday. The offense sustained drives, moved the ball, and scored almost at will. The defense forced turnovers, got off the field on third downs, and stymied the Raiders rushing and passing games. This is exactly how it should be, though. When a bad team comes into the Superdome this is what should happen. The Saints should play this way every week. They need to take this game and not allow it to be an aberration, but rather be the standard for how they play for the remainder of the season. The Saints are a very good football team when they don't kill themselves with penalties, turnovers, or mistakes. Just ask the Raiders...

The Essentials

The Saints had 441 total yards; The Raiders had 226

The Saints were 9 for 14 on 3rd downs; The Raiders were 6 for 16

The Saints turned the ball over 0 times; The Raiders turned it over 2 times

The Saints were penalized 4 times for 30 yards; The Raiders had 5 for 26 yards

Drew Brees. As if there was any debate. Drew continues to be the best quarterback on the planet this season as he completed 26 of 30 for 320 yards and 3 touchdowns. As long as he is healthy the Saints will have an opportunity to win every game they play. Enjoy the Drew Brees Era, Saints fans, chances are you won't ever see anything like it again.

The Rickey Jackson Defensive Player of the Week Award

Bobby McCray. I originally put Jonathan Vilma's name in this space and then decided to change it. McCray sees limited snaps on defense and yet today he still managed to be a game changer. He came up with two big sacks, even forcing a fumble on one of them. That fumble was recovered by Kendrick Clancy and led to a Saints touchdown. McCray did a great job today of making the most of the limited amount of playing time he saw and making an impact.

The Steve Gleason Special Teams Player of the Week Award

Usama Young. Usama has been the best special teams player for the Saints week in and week out. He leads the team in special teams tackles on the season and had another good day today. You tend to overlook special teams when they play well and this is why Young's efforts on special teams have gone largely unnoticed thus far.

Anatomy of a Play

With 12:52 remaining in the 4th quarter, the Raiders faced a 3rd down and 8 from their own 40 yard line. They came out with two receivers split left, one split right, a tight end to the right and Michael Bush in the backfield with JaMarcus Russell, who was in the shotgun.

The Saints came out in the nickel with four down lineman, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. Jason David and Randall Gay were to the right over the two Raider receivers and Mike McKenzie was on the left over the lone receiver to that side. Josh Bullocks was deep as the free safety and Roman Harper was lined up 7 yards off the line of scrimmage over the tight end. Scott Shanle and Jonathan Vilma were the linbackers. Vilma lined up directly over the ball, showing blitz, and then backed away shortly before the snap. When Vilma backed away, Shanle walked up and showed blitz.

At the snap, Will Smith dropped back into coverage, Kendrick Clancy was blocked by left tackle Kwame Harris, and Brian Young was blocked by the right guard and eventually passed off to the center. McCray flew around the outside and threw the right tackle, Cornell Green to the ground. Scott Shanle and Roman Harper both blitzed but were picked up and put no pressure on Russell.

Once McCray came free after throwing down Green, Russell pulled down the ball to absorb the hit, and McCray went to wrap him up. As Russell went to put the ball away, McCray's right hand hit the ball and knocked it free. McCray, who was on the ground now, saw the ball and made an attempt for it, as did Russell. The ball rolled away from them and was lost in the pile up that ensued when Clancy and Shanle both dove for the ball. Everyone over shot it and the ball wound between Clancy's knees. When Kwame Harris dove on top of Clancy, Clancy bends downward, grabs the ball, and then turns his body so that he was no longer facing the pile. Oakland guard Carlisle Cooper saw Clancy with the ball and tried to strip him but the official saw it as well and awarded the ball to the Saints.

Three plays later Drew Brees found Mark Campbell in the end zone to make it 34-3 in favor of the Saints.

Fantasy Focus

Not only is Drew Brees the best real quarterback on the planet, he's the best fantasy quarterback, as well. Once again, he threw for 300 yards, and this week he decided to add 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Reggie Bush also continues to put up very good fantasy numbers, as well. Sean Payton makes an effort to get Reggie the ball, especially in scoring situations, and that is half of the battle in fantasy football. Aaron Stecker stole a touchdown today, probably angering some Reggie and/or Deuce owners. I wouldn't read too much into that, though.

Short Yardage

+ I think today is indicative of the role you will see Deuce McAllister in for the remainder of the season. This is the same way they used him against San Francisco, and I believe his lack of action against Minnesota was more due to Minnesota's defense and the gameplan than anything else. He got 13 touches and turned that into 65 yards and helped the Saints eat clock, extend drives, and get the tough yards. Retro Deuce.

+ I'm happy with the decision to make Marques Colston inactive today. I don't see the point in rushing him back. If we couldn't beat the Raiders without Colston then getting him back is irrelevant, anyway. Next week will be his second consecutive week of practice and hopefully he'll be fully prepared for the biggest game of the season next week in Carolina.

+ The Saints used Reggie Bush more as a deep threat today and I really like what it does for our offense. Thomas Howard is probably one of the fastest linebackers in the NFL and even he is no match for covering Reggie. The Saints sent him downfield and targeted him at least twice today, and I expect that to happen more in the future. Normally, Bush is just a safety for Drew Brees, as Bush hangs in the flat or just runs a hook in the middle of the field. I think sending him downfield and exposing the coverage mismatch with the linebackers is really going to open things up. The second time they threw to Bush deep, which turned out to be Brees' first incompletion, should have been a big play. Brees under threw Reggie a little and that gave the defender time to make a play.

+ Is it just me or does it seem like the holes are bigger when Deuce is carrying the ball? The offensive line did a better job today than last week, but they were also going against a much worse defensive front than last week. Jammal Brown needs to step up his level of play and stop the holding. If Brown can become the run-blocker that he was two years ago and Carl Nicks can minimize his mistakes in pass-blocking then the Saints can have a devastating left side of the line to run behind.

+ The Saints have nobody to blame but themselves for not getting off a field goal attempt at the end of the first half. If you have 6 seconds on the clock, you don't have time for your tight end to run 25 yards down the field and catch a pass. You just don't. The Saints were on their own 49 yard line when the ball was snapped, and they probably needed about 18 yards to get into field goal range. That would have put them on the 33 and attempting a 50-yard field goal. Instead, we went a little farther down the field and wound up with no time left on the clock. I'd rather have Mehlhaff attempt a 50-yarder than not get an opportunity to attempt a 42-yarder. But that's just me.

+ The defense did not allow a touchdown today. I repeat: The defense did not allow a touchdown today. The last time the Saints held their opponent without a touchdown was against Carolina last season. Before that, it was the Monday night game against Atlanta in 2006. Going by that pattern we only get one of these a season so enjoy it while you can.

+ I thought Sedrick Ellis going down was going to absolutely kill our defensive line. Instead, the Saints smothered Adrian Peterson on Monday night and then came out only a few days later and held the Raiders to 85 yards rushing on 22 carries. This can partially be contributed to the linebackers playing well against the run, but it all starts up front. These guys have taken what was a weakness and turned it into a strength for two consecutive weeks. The real test will come next week against Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart.

+ I really wish the Saints defensive line and defensive secondary would get on the same page. On plays where the Saints quickly get pressure on the quarterback, there's always a blown coverage and somebody is wide open so the quarterback can safely get rid of the ball. On plays where the defensive secondary has everyone blanketed and there's no one to throw to, the defensive line is playing patty-cake with their blockers and not getting any pressure on the quarterback. If we can ever put it all together, watch out.

+ The Saints defensive backs must absolutely hate interceptions. They dropped 5 today by my count. And I'm not talking about balls that were difficult to catch. I'm talking about balls that were thrown directly to the defensive backs, making it look as if they were the intended receiver on the play. This isn't anything new, though. Here's what I wrote after a game last year:

+ It absolutely amazes me that world class athletes in the NFL cannot catch a football. The Saints defensive backs must have had traumatizing experiences involving catching a football when they were children, and now they can't get themselves to catch them anymore. That's the only logical explanation for all the dropped interceptions.

+ Staying on the secondary, I refuse to believe the biggest weakness of this team is the free safety position. We do not have one player on our roster who has the proper skill set to play free safety. Harper, Bullocks, and Kaesviharn all lack ball skills and are better suited to play strong safety. Harper has dropped interceptions in the end zone in 2 of the last 3 weeks, Kaesviharn can only catch interceptions in that one end zone in the Superdome, and Josh Bullocks must just have horrible depth perception. On a 4th quarter deep throw intended for Ashley Lelie from JaMarcus Russell, Bullocks was running behind Lelie with Usama Young and actually ran into Young, taking both of them out of the play. Luckily for the Saints, the ball was overthrown.

+ I'm a little nervous about the Taylor Mehlhaff Era. He got off to a shaky start by missing his first field goal attempt and then kicking a kickoff out of bounds. He rebounded well, however, and made all of his extra point attempts along with knocking in field goals from 33 and 44 yards. The majority of his kickoffs had good hang time, but were a little short, and he did put one deep into the end zone for a touchback. A bit of a mixed bag from him...

+ The Saints did an absolutely phenomenal job today of sustaining drives and getting points out of them. Their first scoring drive consisted of 18 plays and lasted 10:59. Their second touchdown-scoring drive consisted of 11 plays and ate up 5:46. They also had scoring drives of 6 and 7 plays. This made sure the defense was fresh the entire game and it also wore down the Raiders defense. You can't overestimate the importance of things like this.

+ The Saints finally managed to go an entire game without turning the ball over. See how much easier it is to win when you don't shoot yourself in the foot? Turnovers were huge in this game. After Jason David's interception, the Saints went down the field and scored a touchdown, and after Kendrick Clancy's fumble recovery, the Saints went down the field and scored another touchdown. That's a 14-point swing, ladies and gentlemen.

Looking Ahead

Next week is probably the most important game of the season for the Saints. With Carolina's loss today, the Saints are only 1 game behind Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta, who are all tied for the division lead at 4-2. A win next week would make the Saints 4-3 and 2-0 in the division.

To get into the playoffs this season the Saints are going to have win at least 10 games. I don't think 9 wins will get you in this year. Your best bet for getting into January is winning your division so that you don't even have to worry about what anybody else does. If the Saints want to win the division they are going to have to go at least 4-2 in division play. At least. Carolina was embarrassed by Tampa Bay today and will be ready to come out swinging when the Saints come into town. Let's hope the Saints are ready to swing back.